"He lived the American dream," Amardeep Kaleka told CNN. His father brought his family to the United States with little money but a strong work ethic in the early 1980s. The flag also was a form of protection for the family, Satwant Kaleka told them.

It stood at half-staff Monday evening as the family grieved.

The six killed in Sunday's attack were identified by police as five men -- Kaleka; Sita Singh, 41; Ranjit Singh, 49; Prakash Singh, 39, and Suveg Singh, 84 -- and a woman, 41-year-old Paramjit Kaur.

Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Human Rights Organization hold placards and candles during a vigil in Amritsar, India, on Tuesday, August 7, as they pay tribute to Sikh devotees killed in the U.S. The tragedy of the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting has reverberated worldwide.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Sikhs gather at Washington's Lafayette Park, across from the White House, for a Night of Remembrance of the Wisconsin Gurdwara Shootings on Wednesday, August 8. The man on the left is holding a poster of Oak Creek Police Officer Lt. Brian Murphy, who was shot multiple times as he pursued the gunman.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Photos of the victims are displayed during a candlelight vigil Wednesday in New York's Union Square. Six people were killed in the shooting Sunday, August 5, near Milwaukee.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – A woman from the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin mourns during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, August 7, at the Oak Creek Community Center in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Mourners and supporters of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin attend the vigil at the Oak Creek Community Center on Tuesday night.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Mourners continue to hold vigils such as the one Tuesday at the Oak Creek Community Center after the carnage left the local Sikh community reeling.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Peggy Renner-Howell bows her head after laying flowers Tuesday at a makeshift memorial near the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek.

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Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – A man visits the makeshift memorial near the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on Tuesday.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Members of Wisconsin's Sikh community conduct a candlelight vigil on Monday, August 6, for the six people killed in suburban Milwaukee.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, along with members of the Sikh community, attends Monday's vigil at the Sikh Religious Society of Wisconsin for the victims of the shooting at the Sikh temple.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Hundreds of mourners gathered at the Sikh Religious Society of Wisconsin on Monday, August 6. The mourners pray for their neighbors killed in the attack on a Sikh temple.

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Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Members of the Miwaukee-area Sikh community gather to learn information about the shooting spree of Wade Michael Page, 40, on Monday, August 6 in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – A member of the Miwaukee-area Sikh community weeps as he listens to information about the shooting spree.

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – People console each other on Monday at the command center near the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – SWAT officers surround a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where a gunman whom authorities identified as Wade Michael Page, 40, stormed the building and opened fire on August 5. The incident left six people and the gunman dead.

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Photos:Shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin

Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – SWAT officers gather in front of the temple Sunday. The attack occurred about 10:30 a.m., when temple members were reading scriptures and cooking food.

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Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – People wait for information in front of the temple as law enforcement officers secure the area.

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Shooting at Sikh temple in Wisconsin – Police work outside the entrance to the temple, near Milwaukee.

Why did gunman open fire on Sikh temple?

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"She was a good woman. She was a great mom," said Kaur's son, Harpreet Saini, 18.

Kaur and her family immigrated to the United States eight years ago.

"She lived for us. She worked for us. Anything she did, it was for us," said her older son Kamal Saini, 20. "If there wasn't enough to eat it was always us before she ate."

When Kaur was in the temple praying on Sunday, "My aunt told her that there was a shooting going on outside, we need to get up and leave," said Kamal Saini. "Rather than just getting up and leaving, she wanted to just bow down and pray for the last time and then get up and leave. She was just getting up. She was shot in the back."

Her dream was for her sons to be educated. "She told us education is everything here," said Kamal Saini.

His mother's death "took my world away," he said.

Both young men plan to pursue careers in law enforcement. "I wanted her to see me in uniform," Kamal Saini said.

Another victim, Suveg Singh, spent every day at the temple, said his granddaughter, Sandeep Khattra.

"He is always there, and he's with the community and anybody who is willing to listen," said Khattra. "He educated them about our religion."

"It's an amazing act of heroism, but it's also exactly who he was," Amardeep Kaleka told CNN Milwaukee affiliate WTMJ. "There was no way in God's green Earth that he would allow somebody to come in and do that without trying his best to stop it."

Amardeep Kaleka said the FBI told him his father attacked the shooter in the lobby, resulting in a "blood struggle." A knife close to the victim's body showed blood on it, he said.

"From what we understand, he basically fought to the very end and suffered gunshot wounds while trying to take down the gunman," said Kanwardeep Singh Kaleka, Satwant's nephew.

Satwant Kaleka's wife, Satpal, hid with several other women, telling them to remain quiet during the horrific incident.

The gunman came into the kitchen and shot and wounded two women, she told CNN. "I grabbed everybody and said run, run to the pantry."

Amardeep Kaleka said his father worked hard and was an honest man.

"I would love for them (the public) to know that he lived his life with the principles that he knew and he was taught at a young age. It made him highly successful in America."

President Barack Obama signed a proclamation honoring the victims, ordering that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff at federal facilities and buildings.

Vigils were held Monday night, and one is set for Tuesday. The Sikh temple in Brookfield, northwest of Oak Creek, was to hold a candlelight vigil late Monday.

The Rev. Paul Armstrong of Oak Creek Community United Methodist Church,site of a Monday evening prayer vigil, said the diverse array of faiths in the community have an opportunity to further deepen bonds. "There's a few of us who will be calling folks together to organize some more interfaith services," he told CNN.

"Being in mission to the world is something we share," Armstrong said of his faith and the Sikh community. "Their hospitality is wonderful. That is something the Christian community is called to do."

The vigil was held outdoors, and a survivor of the temple shooting spoke, according to Armstrong.

"The focus was to express our sorrow and that all of us can be lights of the world," he said.

Navdeep Singh, a policy adviser to the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, says Sikhs believe in freedom of religion, community service and inclusiveness. At temples, or gurdwaras, where Sikhs hold services, everyone is welcome.